What’s next for the Chargers and Raiders now that the Rams are moving to LA?

The new home of the Los Angeles Rams in Inglewood, Calif. won’t be finished until 2019, making the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum the team’s temporary home until then. But it’s unlikely that the Rams will be alone in Los Angeles, and it’s probable that the San Diego Chargers opt to move 120 miles north to join the Rams.

The problem for the Chargers is that the team never intended to move to Inglewood and had its sights set on sharing a home in Carson, Calif. with the Raiders. Now the team has been given the option to share a stadium with the Rams and owner Dean Spanos has some options to mull over.

“My goal from the start of this process was to create the options necessary to safeguard the future of the Chargers franchise while respecting the will of my fellow NFL owners,” Spanos said in a statement on Tuesday night. “Today we achieved this goal with the compromise reached by NFL ownership. The Chargers have been approved to relocate to Los Angeles, at the Inglewood location, at any time in the next year.

“In addition, the NFL has granted an additional $100 million in assistance in the event there is a potential solution that can be placed before voters in San Diego. I will be working over the next several weeks to explore the options that we have now created for ourselves to determine the best path forward for the Chargers.”

That sounds amicable enough, but a report from behind the scenes from Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News said that the Chargers aren’t happy with the way things turned out. And while Spanos talks about the options he has been given, there are really only three:

There are pros and cons to each of the three options, but Spanos doesn’t have much time to weigh them. The NFL owners are scheduled to have meetings in Boca Raton, Fla. from March 20 to March 23 and his decision regarding the 2016 season must be made by the time those meetings are through. If he elects to keep the Chargers in San Diego for another year, Spanos will have until Jan. 15, 2017 to decide if the team is moving to LA at all.

Only if Spanos opts to pass on the chance to go to LA would the Oakland Raiders then be given the option to join the Rams. Before the Raiders get that chance, Spanos has to weigh his three options:

Move to LA for the 2016 season

The Rams have a pre-established fanbase in LA after nearly 50 seasons in the area before a move to St. Louis. The difficulty for the Chargers will be carving out their own group of fans in the new market, and that challenge is only intensified if the Rams get a one-year head start on marketing and selling season tickets.

Staying in San Diego for another year as a charade with LA on the horizon isn’t ideal either. Ever seen The Break-Up with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston? If things are truly over between the Chargers and San Diego like it looks like, keeping each other as roommates after a break-up is only going to create an awkward situation that will almost certainly yield fan apathy.

But moving to LA isn’t as easy as a snap of the fingers. New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch told reporters that owners never even discussed a temporary home for the Chargers and that it was “unlikely” that the team would make the move for 2016.

According to Daniel Kaplan of the Sports Business Journal, USC is OK with the idea of two teams sharing the LA Coliseum. But Exposition Park, the 160-acre site that houses the LA Coliseum, LA Memorial Sports Arena, California Science Center and other facilities, has more tenants than just USC and filling every Sunday with major events could raise objections from other tenants, according to the LA Times.

The LA Times says other options if the LA Coliseum turns out to be a bust for the Chargers are the Rose Bowl, Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium and the StubHub Center, although some of those alternatives aren’t very realistic.

Stay in San Diego in 2016, move to LA in 2017

Qualcomm Stadium isn’t the long-term home for the Chargers, but it’s still the most NFL-ready stadium in Southern California. A patient approach makes sense for the Chargers, but it would come with the aforementioned apathy, awkwardness and head start for the Rams.

Still, this is the option that owners seem to believe is the most realistic, according to Tisch.

Stay in San Diego

If the Chargers manage to find a long-term option that keeps them in San Diego, the NFL will kick in $100 million toward the stadium efforts. But if $100 million was the gap that was keeping the two sides apart, it likely would’ve been bridged a long time ago.

It took a long time to get San Diego to offer $350 million in public funds toward a new stadium, but when a top-tier stadium costs nearly $2 billion, that isn’t enough to get it done. Unless the city and Spanos can somehow figure things out soon, the NFL staying in San Diego still seems unrealistic.

Like the Chargers, the Raiders weren’t particularly thrilled with the outcome of the resolution reached on Tuesday, although Mark Davis had even more reason to be frustrated.

“The Raiders congratulate Stan Kroenke and the Rams on their successful bid for relocation to Los Angeles,” the team said in a statement. “The Raiders will now turn our attention to exploring all options to find a permanent stadium solution. We thank fans throughout the Raider Nation for their unrivaled passion and support.”

The problem for the Raiders now is finding an immediate home. Raiders owner Mark Davis made it clear that the team’s lease at the O.co Coliseum is expired and it’s not a given that he’ll sign up for another year. According to Davis, it’s not even a guarantee that the team stays in California (via CSN Bay Area):

Where will the Raiders play next year?

“America,” Davis said. “The world is a possibility for the Raider Nation.”

While Davis doesn’t sound particularly enthused or optimistic about a long-term relationship with Oakland, even after the NFL offered to chip in $100 million toward a new stadium, the city’s mayor still is.

“We are pleased to have additional time to work with the Raiders and the NFL to build a new home for the team in Oakland,” Schaaf said in a statement on Tuesday. “We recognize the Raiders have been understandably frustrated over the years so we’re excited to have this chance to rededicate ourselves to getting a deal done that works for the team/NFL/our fans/our taxpayers.

“We remain confident that the Raiders can build a new stadium in Oakland without a direct public subsidy. We stand ready to work with the Raiders and the NFL to responsibly make that happen. Good night Raider Nation, members of the media, and who are eagerly awaiting a resolution on this. Back to work tomorrow.”

If immediate relocation is pursued by Davis, he has already ruled out St. Louis as a possibility and now that LA is almost definitely not going to happen for the Raiders, San Antonio is the belle of the ball. Davis reportedly purchased land between Austin and San Antonio and could try to scramble to make a relocation happen.

Even San Diego could be a possibility for the Raiders. In November, the San Diego Union-Tribune said “Davis has made it known San Diego is an option” and, while he has shot down the possibility of St. Louis, he wouldn’t comment on San Diego on Tuesday.

But he doesn’t have much time to make that a reality and conventional wisdom tells us that the Raiders will be forced to stay in Oakland and spend another year trying to make nice. If a solution isn’t met, then the Raiders could pursue relocation again in 2017.